


it just might be fantastic

by delightfulalot



Category: Disney RPF
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-02
Updated: 2014-06-02
Packaged: 2018-02-03 03:23:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1729283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/delightfulalot/pseuds/delightfulalot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>Joe is looking at her, really looking at her, in a way he hasn’t before, in a way she’s pretty much always wanted him to. </em>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	it just might be fantastic

**Author's Note:**

> Can be read on its own just fine, but there's definitely more story here that possibly, one day, might be finished. Title from "Don't Get Me Wrong" by the Pretenders.

Demi tries to make it home on time, she really does, but then the airline loses her luggage and she runs into traffic and she ends up not even going back to her house before stopping by the stadium. She’s called ahead, and so Big Rob meets her at the back entrance and leads her through the maze of the belly of the stadium to the ramp that leads on stage.

“How was the trip?” he asks in his comfortable, familiar Big Rob voice.

“Don’t ask,” Demi says. “But the show last night went great. How are the boys doing?”

“They’re on fire tonight.”

Demi smiles. “What is it about Dallas?”

“You want me to tell them you’re here? Get you up on stage with them?”

“Oh, no, I have airplane on me. I’ll just surprise them after.”

“Are you sure? You look just as pretty as you always do.”

“Yeah. I’ll just watch.”

He leaves her standing off to the side at the bottom of the ramp leading onstage, different people rushing by her. She gets a quick hug from John Taylor, who runs to the bathroom while the boys are singing “Hello Beautiful.” Kevin almost misses a cue when he glances her way and spots her, but his face lights up in a way that makes her smile back. After a few minutes, Miss Denise walks up and touches Demi lightly on the arm. Demi turns and smiles when she sees who it is.

“Hey, Miss Denise.”

They hug, and Miss Denise says, “Do you want to come back to the green room? Mr. Jonas, Frankie, and Danielle are already there.”

“Oh, no thank you. I’d like to surprise the boys when they get off the stage.”

“Okay. It shouldn’t be long.” Miss Denise smiles and heads back the way she came.

Demi closes her eyes and listens to Joe’s voice blend with Nick’s, Kevin and Nick’s guitars blending together, everything wrapped in the dull roar of the crowd. The crowd is why she became a performer – the roar is like a blanket she can wrap around herself when she’s tired or when the press have been after her all day. Anytime she thinks about quitting, about keeping her new songs to herself and just performing for family members in her living room, the roar of the crowd is always what brings her back.

“Once again, I’m Nick Jonas,” Nick says over the music, and Demi’s eyes pop open.

“I’m Kevin Jonas.”

“I’m Joe Jonas, and we are the Jonas Brothers. Thank you very much! Good night!”

The band finishes up with a musical flourish, and Demi can picture their bow, Kevin, Nick and Joe all in a line, bending simultaneously. Demi idly wonders if Kevin is telling his brothers that she’s there, he saw her, but she doesn’t have to wonder for long.

“Demiiiiiiiiii!” Joe comes rocketing down the ramp and almost knocks her over, grabbing her in a tight hug. “Kevin wasn’t lying this time!”

Demi laughs. “How many times have you yelled my name when I wasn’t here?”

“Oh, I do that anyway.” He shrugs with his arms still around her. Kevin runs over and hits Joe on the back of his head.

“We’re doing an encore. Hey, Demi.”

“Hey, Kevin,” Demi says. Joe disentangles himself from her and jogs back toward the stage with Kevin, passing Nick heading the other way. Nick gives Demi a quick hug.

“You’re coming with us,” he says into her ear.

“Oh, no I’m not,” she protests, but he’s got a hold of her hand and is pulling her behind him. Someone hands her a microphone and suddenly she’s on stage, blinking under the lights. There’s the roar of the crowd, and suddenly she feels like she’s home. She is home.

She forgets about the fact that she spent six hours on a plane today, and her hair’s still a mess and she’s wearing sweat pants. Nick squeezes her hand once and drops it, and she looks at the microphone in her other hand. She smiles.

“Hello, Dallas!” she says, and somehow the screams get louder. “What do you think we should play for them, Joe?” Demi asks the brother nearest to her. She’s not sure when he appeared near her, or when Kevin and Nick essentially disappeared.

“Oh, I think Nick’s got an idea,” Joe says, and Nick, now sitting at the drums, launches into “We Rock.” Demi laughs so hard she misses her cue, but Joe, Kevin, and Nick must have practiced recently, because they even start singing the verses before Demi manages to stand up straight and say into her microphone, “Stop, stop, stop. I’ve got an idea what song we can play. Can I get a guitar?”

Kevin walks over from his side of the stage, holding out his guitar.

“Thanks, Kev,” Demi says, setting her microphone into the stand that’s suddenly appeared in front of her and strapping his guitar on. “You’ve always been my favorite brother.” She sees Joe’s mouth drop open, and she knows, she knows, that tomorrow or even tonight the internet’s gonna be abuzz with wondering what she means, but she doesn’t say anything else, just grins.

“Okay, boys and girls, no more _Camp Rock_ songs. Who here likes John Lennon?” The audience screams, like she knew they would, and it sounds decidedly older, like she knew it would. She walks backward and sure enough, there’s John Taylor. She whispers into his ear, and he spreads it around to the rest of the band while she starts by herself, launching into a lesser-known Lennon song, one of the dozens Miley has played for her, one that she knows Miley and Nick have played together, so that if no one else joins in, at least Demi will have the drums to keep her company. But then the rest of the band comes in too, and she can hear Joe singing with her, and when she glances back he’s kicked Ryan off the keyboard and is rocking out. She can’t help but grin even wider.

**

They all go to a local diner after the show, taking over an entire section. They should be exhausted right now, all of them, especially Demi, who started the day before six with an acoustic set on the other side of the country. But everyone was just so GOOD tonight, so on top of everything, especially the boys, that everyone is completely energized.

Demi sits between Kevin and Frankie, across from Joe. She feels a little like she’s the center of attention, which happens sometimes when she sees the boys again after a long time. They ask questions about her music, her family. She invites them over for dinner the next night, and God, sometimes she just really really likes that they moved to Dallas. When Selena’s home, it’s like all of her favorite people are in one place, and they act like real teenagers, going over to each other’s houses for dinner and riding their bikes together and trying to ignore the fact that they play sold-out stadiums on a regular basis.

Frankie asks about Madison, and Kevin asks after Selena, and Joe asks if it’s true that she’s quitting Disney, and the conversation almost seems to screech to a halt.

Her eighteenth birthday is in a few weeks, and her Sonny contract is almost up, and she loves Hollywood Records, but she’s a little tired of not being allowed to release her favorite songs because they don’t “fit her image.”

She doesn’t say this, though. She just smiles – a little less brightly than before – and says, “I’m thinking about branching out,” which is the same thing Selena said before she started doing non-Disney movies almost exclusively. But Demi doesn’t want to talk about it, and even though he was the one who brought it up (or maybe because of that) Joe is the one to change the subject.

“Look, Frank, I got pancakes too,” he says. He and Kev have been competing for Frankie’s attention ever since he declared Nick his favorite, right before they left the stadium.

Frankie looks at Joe’s happy face pancakes, ordered specially from the kids’ menu, and just says, “You’re trying too hard,” before digging into his own chocolate chip pancakes. Nick and Kevin burst out laughing, and Danielle looks like she's holding back a smile. Demi tries really hard not to laugh, but Joe just looks so shocked, and Frankie’s so oblivious, that pretty soon she’s giggling too. Joe turns his shocked look to her.

“I’ll get you for laughing, Lovato.”

“What are you gonna do about it?”

“Oh, you just wait,” he says, and he has that Joe-glint in his eye. Demi turns to Kevin and just says, “Help.”

“I thought you grew out of your girl-tormenting phase, Joe,” Kevin says.

“Not my Demi-tormenting one.”

“Don’t be mean to Demi. She’s my favorite,” Frankie says through a mouthful of pancakes. Demi laughs delightedly at everyone’s reactions.

“What about me?” Nick asks.

Frankie pats his hand and says, “You’re second.”

Kevin shakes his head. “You sure know how to work us.”

“I know.”

Demi grins at Joe. “I’m the second coolest person at this table, Jonas. You can’t touch me.”

“We’ll see about that,” he says, and he stands up and leans across the table, reaching to tickle her stomach. She shrieks and jumps up, sprints across their section, dodging tables as Joe takes off after her. Miss Denise would normally try to stop them, get them to calm down, but it’s been a long day, and sometimes it’s just a good idea to let Joe burn off some energy.

Demi ducks out of their section, runs through the rest of the restaurant, hopes they’re going too fast for anyone to recognize them. She ends up in the hallway outside the bathrooms, her original plan to duck inside the ladies’ room, but not quite making it there. She stops for a second to catch her breath in the dark alcove, and Joe is suddenly there, breathing as hard as she is.

“Gotcha,” he says, in a different tone of voice than before. He doesn’t tickle her. Instead, he rests one hand on the wall beside her head and leans toward her. She feels like Angela Chase staring up at Jordan Catalano. Joe is looking at her, _really_ looking at her, in a way he hasn’t before, in a way she’s pretty much always wanted him to.

“Joe,” she says in the same tone of voice, because the silence is starting to be too much for her. She’s starting to imagine scenarios in her head.

“Yeah,” he says, but he doesn’t meet her gaze because he’s staring at her mouth. He’s staring at her mouth? Oh, God, she’s probably asleep on the plane, and she’s going to wake up any second now and _Bride Wars_ will be playing as the in-flight movie and everything that happened tonight won’t have happened.

Then he cups her cheek in his hand, and looks in her eyes, and leans his mouth toward hers.

His lips are soft and wet, and they feel so nice and so like Joe that she makes a soft contented noise, her mouth opening slightly, and his tongue finds its way in. The kiss changes, becomes more urgent, and her hands move from behind her back to clutch at the hem of his shirt. He moves the hand that was cupping her face around her neck, keeping her anchored to him. She gets more lost in the kiss, pushing away from the wall into Joe, pressing their bodies together, and his other hand moves to her waist. Now they are full on making out in the dark hallway outside the bathrooms of a small diner in Texas, tongues dueling and hands roaming and both trying not to moan. He nips at her bottom lip, and she is simultaneously so surprised and so turned on that she can’t help but start laughing, leaning her face away from his but keeping her hands tangled in the bottom of his t-shirt.

“What?” he asks. He is still breathing as hard as he was when he found her, and he looks confused.

“This is a great place for our first kiss. Our first real kiss,” she adds before he can say anything about _Camp Rock 2_.

“What makes you think we’ll be doing this again?” he teases.

She doesn’t say anything, just leans in to kiss him again, a short sweet kiss they both think is over too soon.

“God, you’re pretty,” he says, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “And your eyes are, like, sparkling.”

“You don’t look too bad yourself,” she says, and they are both grinning at each other like idiots when suddenly Kevin appears around the corner.

“There you are,” he says, and they spring apart, looking embarrassed. Kevin rolls his eyes. “Are you guys finally together, or what? Everyone’s taking bets on what’s taking you so long back here. Mom and Dad are all for it, by the way, but Mom thinks you can do better, Dem.”

“Hey!” Joe exclaims. “What, is it ‘rag on Joe’ day or something?”

“Yes,” Demi and Kevin say at the same time, but Demi reaches to tuck her hand into Joe’s and Kevin laughs.

“Come on, you two,” he says, and leads them back to their table. Joe wraps his hand around Demi’s, and she tries to keep her smile under control as they come into sight of their thirty-person entourage, someone notices their hand holding, everyone exclaims happily, and she feels like her face might burst. The main sentiment from everyone seems to be, “It sure took you long enough.”

When she sits back down (next to Nick now; Frankie is sitting on their mom’s lap, looking like he’s about to pass out any second. Even Danielle looks like she's fading a bit, leaning on Kevin) Nick leans toward her and says quietly, “You’re pretty much the only person I’ve ever wanted Joe to date.” Demi, who didn’t think she could smile any wider, can’t help but throw her arms around Nick.

“That’s the nicest thing you could’ve told me,” she says when she lets him go. He smiles.

Joe ambles over to his seat, swaggering a little bit. Demi’s pretty sure the band was just inflating his ego, telling him how awesome he is to get a girl like her. She rolls her eyes, but she’s still smiling. He catches her eye, and he looks nervous and excited and happy all at once.

When they’re through with dinner, it’s past midnight and the day is finally starting to catch up with everyone. Demi can hardly keep her eyes open as she follows the Jonas family to their van. She sits in the middle seat, next to Joe, and Frankie climbs up next to her. It’s only a fifteen-minute drive back to Demi’s house, but Frankie slumps onto her, asleep, within the first two minutes. She idly strokes his hair, suddenly missing her little sister like crazy. It feels like years since she’s done this with Madison, and it actually might be.

Joe leans over and whispers in her ear, “I’m jealous.”

She smiles. She settles her free hand on the back of his neck, softly tangling her fingers in his hair. He sighs happily, just loud enough for her to hear, and rests his hand on her knee, the warmth from his palm spreading all over her body, making her wish they were alone right now, and not in a van with his entire family.

They stay like that until Mr. Jonas eases the van to a stop in front of Demi’s house.

“I’ll walk her to the door,” Joe says, and Nick pipes up from the backseat, “We’ll be watching you, Joe.”

Joe merely glares at his brother as he opens his door and hops from the car.

“Tonight was nice,” Joe says when they get to her door.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Demi says, one hand on the doorknob.

“Yes you will.” Joe leans down and kisses her quickly, grinning. “There’s plenty more where that came from.”

“I bet there is.”

Joe glances back at the car quickly. “I bet he’ll honk and wake up the entire neighborhood if I don’t get back there soon.”

“We wouldn’t want that.”

“Still.” Joe kisses her again, this time deep enough to make her grab the hem of his t-shirt again. When they part, he says, “If I spend too much time with you, I’m gonna have to get wrinkle free shirts.”

She glances down to where she’s grabbed his shirt tonight. “Oh,” she says, laughing. There’s a distinct line of wrinkles along the bottom. It looks like only the bottom two inches have been wadded into a ball in the bottom of a suitcase. “Yeah, that might be a good investment.”

“Totally worth it, though,” he says in that same voice he used before he kissed her for the first time tonight. She lays a hand on his chest.

“Your dad. Waking up the whole neighborhood.”

“Right,” he says, standing straight up. “I’m gonna go.” He unnecessarily points behind him.

“I’m gonna go inside,” she says. He nods, walks away. She watches until he gets back into the van, and then she goes inside her house. She shuts the door and leans against it, listening to the van drive away. She lets out the tiniest of squeals and does the girliest spazzing out she’s ever done before taking the stairs two at a time up to her room.

**

She gets a phone call at eight the next morning. She’s pretty annoyed, because today is the first day of her vacation, and she only has so many days to sleep ‘til noon. So she answers the phone with a sharp, “What?” not even checking the caller ID. And for the first few seconds, she still has no clue who it is, because all that’s coming across the line is a loud “Whoooo!”

“ _What_ is going on? Can I go back to sleep now?”  

“No you can’t go back to sleep, girl! Come on! We need to do some FREAKING OUT about last night!”

“Miley?” Demi asks, sitting straight up and slipping her glasses on. She checks the time and groans. “Eight o’clock? Seriously? You know I’m on vacation.”

“Demi! Come onnnn! We need to be all girly and excited about you and Joe!”

“How do you even _know_?” Demi asks, but then she rolls her eyes. “Ignore me, I know how you know. God, it’s just so _early_.”

“Shoot, I know you’ve functioned on way less sleep before. So, details. What exactly happened? All Nick said was that y’all, like, ran across a restaurant and were gone forever, and when you came back you were holding hands.”

“Well, that’s what happened.”    
“Demi! Seriously!”

Demi laughs, finally starting to wake up. “Okay, so, we were just kidding around or something, and he tried to tickle me across the table, so I ran away, and he cornered me by the bathrooms and suddenly we were kissing.”

Miley sighs. “So romantic.” Then she laughs. “The bathrooms? Seriously?”

“Yeah. And, I don’t know, we didn’t really talk about anything, but he walked me to my door and kissed me goodbye and the whole family’s coming over for dinner tonight, so maybe we’ll talk then.”

“Is he a good kisser? ‘Cause Nick is pretty amazing.”

“Miley!” Demi laughs.

“What? I just wanna know if it runs in the family!”

“Yeah, he’s a great kisser. I mean, it’s _Joe_ , you know?”

“Mmm,” is all Miley says. She sounds a little bit lost in her thoughts.

“How does Nick kiss? Is it intense? ‘Cause I feel like he’d kiss really intensely.”

“Sometimes it is. But sometimes it’s just, you know, sweet and slow. It’s nice.”

“Oh, I can’t _believe_ we’re talking about this.”

“You better believe it, babe.” Demi can hear someone call Miley’s name, and Miley groans. “Ugh. Duty calls. I’m off to work. But call me after Joe comes by later, okay? I want _you_ to tell me this time. We can leave Nick out of it.”

“It's a deal."

"Cool. Later, gator!" And with that, Miley hangs up.

Demi, awake now, has no choice but to roll out of bed and pad downstairs. When she enters the kitchen, her mom and Madison are eating pancakes, and her dad is standing at the stove, flipping a few more onto a plate.

"Whoa! Look who's awake!" Mom exclaims, her mouth full.

"Does this mean I have to make more pancakes?" Dad asks.

"Yes," Demi says, sitting next to her mom, ruffling Madison's hair as she walks by.

"What are you doing up, honey? I didn't hear you get in until after midnight."

"Ugh, I didn't. But Miley called me this morning, and she got me all excited and now I'm awake."

"What were you excited about?" Madison asks.

"Actually, it's something I wanted to talk to Mom about."

"Is it Joe?"

Demi narrows her eyes at Madison, but the younger girl merely looks up at her, innocently taking another bite of pancakes.

"Yes," Demi finally says. "Actually, it's the whole Jonas family, Danielle and everybody. I told them to come over for dinner tonight."

"Well, that's fine, isn't it, Eddie? We can just do burgers on the grill."

 "I'll grill if Demi picks up some groceries." Dad puts a plate of pancakes in front of Demi and kisses her forehead, grinning.

"Okay, I'll go to the store. But after that, I'm taking a nap, and no one can stop me!"

"I wouldn't dream of trying," Mom says, smiling at Demi.

**

Demi calls Selena while she's at Wal-Mart, picking up groceries. She's wearing sweatpants, flip-flops, her glasses, and an old T-shirt of her mom's, standing in front of the meat section and staring bewilderedly. When Selena answers, the first thing Demi asks is, "What the hell do you use to grill hamburgers?"

"A grill," Selena says.

"No, I know that, I mean what kind of meat?"

"Hamburger meat. Come on, Dem, I know you can't cook, but don't you think this is a bit much?"

"I hate you." Demi laughs. "So, should I get the lean ground beef, or the cheaper and fattier kind, or, hey, this kind that says 'Perfect for hamburgers!' on it?"

Selena laughs. "I'm gonna go with that last one."

"Got it." Demi puts the package (and another two, just in case) into her basket, and then wanders out of the grocery section.

"So, what's up? Why are you picking up the groceries and not Eddie?"

"He said he'd grill if I picked up groceries. We're having all the Jonai over tonight. And, um, that's pretty much why I'm calling."

Selena shrieks, and it's all Demi can do not to drop the phone in surprise.

"Whoa, is someone killing you?"

"You kissed Joe!" Selena exclaims, and Demi actually moves the phone away from her ear so she can stare at it.

"How do you know that?" she asks after a minute.

"Because you're all stressed about them coming over and you just put on your 'I think I did something good but who knows if you'll think it's good' voice and you were totally making kissy-eyes at Joe while you were performing last night."

"How do you--" Demi starts again, but Selena cuts her off.

"Demetria. I have been your best friend for over ten years, I just _know_ these things, okay? Although that last part I saw on the internet."

Demi feels a rush of love and gratitude for Selena in her chest, standing in the middle of the hardware section of Wal-Mart. "Man, I wish you were in town right now."

"Me, too. Especially because I need to threaten Joe to treat you well."

"Sellllll," Demi whines. She resumes her stroll through the store, heading for the electronics section because that's just where she always heads.

"It will be a very pleasant threatening, I promise, because I do really like Joe, but you are my number one priority. Maybe I can get Kevin or Nick to threaten him for me."

Demi laughs, but stops quickly. "No, seriously, don't."

Selena sighs. "Fine, I guess I won't go out of my way to threaten him. But! The next time I see him, I will let him know that if he hurts you, I will kick his ass."

"I guess that's okay," Demi concedes. "Hey, guess where I am?"

"The grocery store?"

"Wal-Mart."

"Aw, the CD section?"

"You bet. Should I do it?"

"What do you mean, 'should you do it'? Of _course_ you should do it! Do it, do it!"

"Ah, okay!" Demi says, laughing. She grabs a stack of her CDs and spreads them out in the display section, and then grabs a stack of Selena's CDs and spreads them out next to hers, alternating whose is in the front. "There," she says, admiring her handiwork. "It's like you're right here with me."

"Aw, phone hug!"

"Phone hug," Demi says. "I miss you so much."

"I miss you more. And I wish I could talk more, but I'm actually on set right now. I have to go, but you know I love you."

"I love you, too. Talk to you soon!"

"You better, you need to tell me what goes down at dinner tonight."

"Deal." Demi hangs up the phone sadly. Sometimes she feels like she and her friends never actually get to hang out. It's a pretty depressing thought, and Demi is pretty bummed as she cuts through the craft section on her way to the front of the store. She avoids the eye of a teenage girl who is staring at her in shock in the jewelry section, and unloads her basket at one of the middle registers. As she's pulling out the hamburger meat she remembers why she's even at Wal-Mart in the first place; not _all_ of her friends are hundreds of miles away. She grins. Dinner is gonna be fun tonight.

**

The Jonas van pulls into the driveway at quarter 'til six. Demi's not watching out the window or anything, but when Joe jumps out of the back before Mr. Jonas has even cut the engine, she has to fall back quickly so he doesn't see her. She's pretty sure he does, though.

She throws herself across her bed, trying to look casual, but decides that looks stupid just as she hears someone stomping up the stairs. She launches herself into her desk chair and is trying desperately not to let it spin when her door bursts open.

Joe is grinning, breathing hard from his sprint, but he drops it quickly, and tries to look casual. "'Sup?" he says, nodding at Demi. She doesn't say anything, just nods back and tries not to grin too widely. Joe settles casually on the edge of her bed, and then realizes where he is and blushes, sliding down to the floor.

"Sooo," Demi says, beating out a rhythm on her knees, looking over Joe's head to a random spot on her wall.

"Yeah," Joe says, staring straight ahead at a random book in Demi's bookcase.

"This is ridiculous," Demi says after another long moment of silence, finally looking at Joe. He snaps his head up to meet her eyes, and grins. She grins back.

"What should we do about this... _this_?" he asks, gesturing between them.

"Well, I think we should make a list of rules first."

"Oh, man, rules?"

"Not anything _bad_ ," she says. "Just, like, basic stuff. Like, we don't have to talk to each other every day on the phone."

"We don't?"

"Well, we can, but we don't have to. You know, low expectations."

"Like, if one of us is on tour or something, the other one won't freak out if we just, I dunno, sleep after the show instead of always calling each other."

"Right! Exactly. And, okay, this is actually a big one. No dating other people."

"Well, obviously," he says, rolling his eyes.

"Okay, just making sure."

"What, you didn't believe those rumors, did you?"

"I'm not taking sides," she says, holding both hands in the air. "And I'm not talking about the past. We've both - we've both made mistakes." She blushes. "I'm just making plans for the future."

"Maybe we should agree that we're going to have a future, first," he says, getting up and walking towards her. She rolls her chair back until it hits the wall, and he leans into her, placing both hands on the arms of the chair.

"Okay, I agree we'll have a future."

"Kickass," he says softly, leaning in to kiss her.

"And, um, are we going to tell people?" she asks nervously as his lips leave hers.

"I'm pretty sure my family already knows," he says, standing straight up again and looking down at her. She tries not to shiver in the sudden rush of cold air into the space where his body used to be. "Which means Nicky knows, which means Miley knows, which means the entire Cyrus family probably knows."

"Miley definitely knows, she called me this morning. And I called Selena earlier, so she knows too. Anyway, I wasn't talking about, like, our friends. I was talking about, you know, telling _people_."

Joe sighs and drops onto Demi's bed. "Honestly, I don't think Dad will let that happen. I mean, Kev and Danielle didn't really come out officially until they were practically engaged already. And the only reason anyone knows about Miley is because of, you know, Miley. Not Nick."

"So, we won't tell people."

"At least not now."

"Can we go out together? Or will your brothers always have to come?"

"I don't know. I say...we can go out alone. I'm getting tired of those jokers anyway." He grins.

She rolls her eyes. "You're ridiculous. But I guess I kinda like you."

"Don't even pretend. You _know_ you like me," Joe says as someone starts stomping up the stairs extra loudly.

"Whatever. You're okay."

"Hey, Demi!" Nick yells from the other side of the door. "I'm coming in!" He stomps toward the door and pushes it open the tiniest bit. When all he sees is Joe and Demi staring at him, he actually comes into the room. "What's up?" he says casually.

"You're a big dork, that's what," Joe says, reaching out and catching Nick in a headlock.

"Shut up, I had to make sure you two were practicing good Christian values, all alone in here."  

Joe snorts. "You're one to talk. Whose door was Dad threatening to take away last week?"

"Miley wasn't even in the house, Joe," Nick says,

"Did your dad actually threaten that?" Demi asks, laughing.

Joe nods seriously. "It was so lame, you wouldn't believe it, Dem. Miley was standing on the front porch and Nick had just opened the door and Dad was just like, 'don't make me take your bedroom door down, Nicholas!'"

"Come on, even your dad's not that bad." Demi looks up at Joe. He's really, really close to her, like he can't stand being too far away. Demi smiles and leans the tiniest bit to the right, right into Joe. His arm wraps around her waist as he says, "Well, Dad probably got tired of finding Nicky trying to eat Miley's face so many times."

Nick grimaces. "Do you have to be so crude, Joseph?"

"Don't get defensive, Nick." Joe reaches out to softly punch Nick on the shoulder with his free arm. "I'm sure Miley thinks you're a great kisser."

Demi tries not to blush, thinking about her conversation with Miley earlier. "Hey! Maybe we should go downstairs," she says. "It's starting to smell delicious." She's pretty sure the conversation about Nick and Miley kissing will stop if they go downstairs with their entire families.

She's wrong, but still.  
 


End file.
